Safe and Sound
by Me and Mister Bates
Summary: Anna and John have always felt most content in each other's arms.
**Description:** Anna and John have always felt most content in each other's arms.

 **Warnings:** Set all over the place (it isn't even chronological) with spoilers up to and including Series 6, Christmas Special. There's also a flashback of Anna's attack but nothing too upsetting or vivid.

 **A/N:** I said ages ago to my dear friend and beta (silly-beggar) that I'd had the perfect fic idea for her birthday and here it is. This has all been written today and hasn't been edited but anyone other that me so I'm sorry if there's any mistakes.

Thanks for reading!

 **Disclaimer:** Anna, Bates and Downton Abbey all belong to Julian Fellows. I'm only borrowing them for a bit and I intend to give them back! I also didn't write the lyrics to 'Safe and Sound'.

* * *

 **Safe and Sound**

 _Just close your eyes_

"I'm shattered" Anna declared as she flopped in a terribly unladylike fashion next to her husband. John, a frown clouding his features (she really was being terribly overworked by Mary), pulled her into his lap and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"What's Mary been making you do this time? She really is working you too hard my love." John started his little speech, hoping, just once, to get Anna to agree with him.

"No John" Anna disagreed, "she's not at all. Today was just a bit frantic, that's all. I had to pop out and pick up a few, um, items for her trip and pack for her. Nothing to get you worried about, I'm fine. Just so…"

"Tired" John finished for her as Anna yawned loudly, snuggling further into his chest.

"Come on then my love, up to bed." When she didn't move, John looked down and realised Anna was already asleep.

* * *

 _The sun is going down_

It was far nicer, Anna decided, to walk home with John during the summer. In autumn, the wind blew leaves into their path and they struggled not to slip. In winter, their walk home was cloaked in darkness and the frosty air would cause them to hurry home as quickly as they could. In spring, although sometimes still light, rain would turn the skies to grey and drench them to the bone. Yes, summer was by far the nicest season.

Especially when the weather was this kind to them. A busy day at the Abbey had culminated in the evening finishing far earlier than normal and so the Bateses, relieved from their duties, had begun the short walk back to their cottage. They had stopped, a few minutes earlier at Anna's insistence, to watch the sun set over the big house and were contentedly stood, arm in arm, watching the colours float across the sky like paint over canvas.

"John, look how beautiful it is." Anna prompted.

Taking his eyes of his wife to glance at the sky, John mumbled a noncommittal reply and returned to gazing at Anna for he couldn't understand how something as boring as the sun could compare to the true beauty standing next to him.

* * *

 _You'll be alright_

"There's always a place for a man like you." Anna didn't understand how there couldn't be a place for a man like Mr Bates. He was never anything but wonderfully kind to her and she would miss him dearly. Offering a small smile which is reciprocated, Anna turns around to leave him in peace.

"Dear God, let him be alright" she whispers as she walks away from his room, down the men's corridor and towards her own room on the other side of the dividing door. That long walk, always heading away from him, only serves to make certain in her mind the thought that equally delights and terrifies her. Only now, when it's too late, is she sure.

She loves him.

* * *

 _No one can hurt you now_

Clammy hands make their way up her thighs and she screams for someone, anyone to stop this happening to her. As though underwater, her shout make no sound and no one comes to her rescue. The intruding presence leers ever close as she sobs, cowering and desperate….

Anna wakes to the sound of John's comforting voice in her ear and tears, her own, running down her cheeks. It was just a dream.

"Anna, darling, you're safe, you're in our cottage with me. It was just a bad dream, a flashback. I'll never let anyone hurt you again. You're safe."

She sleeps comforted in John's arms, content in the knowledge that he loves her.

* * *

 _Come morning light_

John paces the floorboards outside Lady Mary's bedroom anxiously. He should've taken her home straight after the wedding. If something should happen to her or their baby tonight, it'll be all his fault. How could he be so careless, after all they've been through, to put his wife in such obvious danger?

A cry, Anna's, breaks the silence.

And suddenly, John can't bear to be apart from her any longer. Anna is in pain and needs him, they should face this together, husband and wife, like they always have. Striding up to the door, he throws it open – no time to knock – and marches into the room.

In the few seconds John is in the room before he is forcibly removed by a disgruntled Mrs Crawley ("Not now John, she's doing fine") he catches Anna's eye and she offers him a small smile. John can't remember when he's seen her looking so drained before yet, even alone in that massive bed, she looks strong. Mrs Crawley is right, she doesn't need him.

Resuming his pacing outside the door and wincing anytime Anna's moans reach him, John steels himself for the long night ahead. It feels wrong to hear his wife to call out in pain and to do nothing but he must share in her bravery and repress his protective instincts. After all, by morning, they'll have a little one to fuss over.

* * *

 _You and I'll be safe and sound…_

They make a beautiful picture stood by the window, silhouetted by the moon's silvery glow. William sounds little mewls in his sleep as Anna snuggles him to her bosom, delighting in her baby son. She's rocking the babe as he sleeps, crooning a tune that sounds softly familiar, as though heard in a dream or in a dream of a dream.

No longer content with observing, John moves slowly and stands alongside Anna, wrapping her in his embrace. He lets his finger ghost across his boy's downy hair and plants a fleeting kiss on his button nose. William murmurs but doesn't wake; the little chap must be exhausted.

Looking from their beloved child into each other's eyes, the couple whisper three little words, their three little words, together:

"love you forever."


End file.
